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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 9454455" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 80: THE THING UNDER THE LAKEPC Roster:Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 16             Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 10             Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 8/paladin 8             Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 10             Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 16NPC Roster:Beetle Darkcloud, halfling ranger 5             Robin the Balladeer, human bard 5Game Session Date: 31 August 2024 - - -The heroes had gotten another week or so of travel behind them, during which time Alewyth had decided to add magic vestment to the list of spells she traditionally cast each morning, along with her endure elements and the heroes' feast that fed everyone and buoyed them for the day's adventures.  They were now in the drow city of Sko'torath, where they had picked up a few items, some more rations, and were heading back onto the road.While passing by a pier overlooking Lake Pros'bock, Wakuren couldn't help but notice the lone drow woman standing there, looking wistfully over the lake's waters.  He'd taken to using the disguise self powers of his robe of blending to take on the appearance of a good-looking dark elf nobleman while in the confines of drow cities; it tended to cause a lot less trouble than when the dark elves found what they always considered a full-blooded orc walking about in their midst.  Having cast his traditional morning tongues spell, he approached the woman - he could hear her choking back sobs - and asked her, in the drow tongue, if everything was alright, and if there was anything he could do for her."Oh, forgive me, I'm just being foolish," replied the woman, wiping the tears from her eyes with a handkerchief.  "I'm just wondering if I'll ever see my daughter Baella again.""Has she been kidnapped?" asked Wakuren, jumping to the first explanation that came to mind.  He climbed down from Nimbus's back, so he could talk to the drow woman at her own level."Oh, nothing like that," the woman replied.  "She applied for a job with Lord Djuduran Gambrosini, and was selected along with three others.  It's just...it's just that Lord Gambrosini has hired on staff before, and I cannot recall a single person who joined his employ that was ever seen again."  She turned her gaze from Wakuren's false form back to the lake, and pointed to a clump of green that could be seen growing up out of the waters.  "He lives on his own private island on the lake, and that's where he's taken on his new hires."Xandro, also under the effect of a tongues spell, climbed down from his bonehead Ceph and joined the conversation.  The woman did not seem overly discomfited by being approached by a human; either she'd encountered humans before or her focus on her daughter prevented her from even noticing his lighter-skinned, rounded-ear appearance.  "Who is this Djuduran?" he asked."Lord Gambrosini is one of the most important people in the city!" exclaimed the woman, Caedolyienne.  "He's personally slain several dragons that tried drawing tribute from the good people of the city.  It's considered a great honor to work for him - he's very particular, and only hires the absolute best."  The woman said wistfully, "Baella's been playing the flute since she was six years old.  She recently began studying under the tutelage of a bard flutist named Tomar, who has praised her skills himself.""And he selected your daughter for his employ?" asked Alewyth, drawn into the conversation.  Thurloe, who'd never bothered learning the tongues spell, sighed in irritation as he remained on the back of his own bonehead mount; hopefully they'd get this conversation finished up soon so they could back-brief him on what all was being said.  He just hoped this wasn't a situation like with Derrok's mother several cities back, with some dumbass son getting himself into more trouble than he could handle."Yes," replied Caedolyienne, answering the dwarf's question.  "About half a week ago.  She tried out and was quite shocked that she'd been chosen - walked around in a daze the rest of that day, as she packed her belongings.  And then that night, he came on his boat and picked up the new hires, and that's the last I've seen of my Baella."  She dried another teardrop sliding down her cheek."Who all were the other three he hired?" Wakuren wanted to know.  In reply, the drow woman admitted she didn't know their names, but they were all young drow women like her daughter.  "And he picked them up at night?" the half-orc pressed, secure in his drow nobleman guise.  She admitted it had been night when they all got on Lord Gambrosini's boat with their luggage - but as they were all drow, they preferred the dark of the night over the harsh light of the sun during daylight hours."What are you thinking?" Alewyth pressed.  Wakuren shushed her for a moment and turned to Caedolyienne.  "We will be more than happy to check up on the safety of your daughter," he assured her.  At that, Beetle gave a weary sigh and started explaining to Thurloe and Robin that Wakuren had just promised the drow woman the adventurers would all go check up on her daughter, who was out on the island in the middle of the lake.  He knew what that meant: he'd be watching over the dinosaur mounts again while they delayed their journey to the Forbidden Lands yet again."I--I can't afford to pay you anything," admitted Caedolyienne."That won't be necessary," assured Wakuren, and although he couldn't understand the words being said Thurloe was pretty sure the damned half-orc was turning down an opportunity for payment once again.  But fortunately for the spellsword, a male drow approached the group and explained that while he'd not intended to, he'd overhead their conversation and was now somewhat concerned because his own daughter Drischetta had also been chosen to go work for Lord Gambrosini.  "She was also in a daze the day she'd been chosen," he supplied.  "You don't think...there was some kind of enchantment magic at work, do you?"  When Wakuren admitted it was a distinct possibility, the man gave him his name and offered to pay a thousand pieces of gold if, after checking out the situation, the heroes determined the new hires were in danger and rescued them from Lord Gambrosini's clutches, if there were in fact anything untoward going on.Wakuren gave them his assurances and the group said their goodbyes, Beetle leading the dinosaurs to the nearest stables while the other six started gathering what information they could about Lord Gambrosini.  (Thurloe didn't mind this part so much, as much of it was done at drinking establishments, and those with the tongues spells active did all the actual work.)  They learned there were plenty of dangerous creatures in the lake, and some suspected Lord Gambrosini stocked some of them himself to keep out the riff-raff.  One drow claimed his cousin saw several water drakes swimming in the lake while he'd been out fishing, claiming each was as big, or bigger, than Yellow-Belly, Beetle's dinosaur riding mount.  And although there were plenty of boat owners willing to pilot their craft out onto the lake with the heroes as passengers, not a one would take them to Lord Gambrosini's private island, as Djuduran apparently did not like intruders onto his property.  They also learned that "flying creatures" were often spotted around the island at twilight, which reinforced Wakuren's concerns, which he finally spoke aloud to the others once they had ensured there were no eavesdroppers within the range of hearing."I think it's quite possible this Gambrosini fellow's a vampire," he said.  "He hires young women, who are never seen again; he has what could be bats flying around his island manor; and he showed up at night, once the sun had gone down.""We've handled vampires before," bragged Thurloe.  "So, what's the plan?""It's daylight now," Wakuren replied.  "I think you all hop into the lamp, I cast air walk on myself and turn invisible with my ring, and walk on over to the island.  Once there, I'll cast gaseous form and slip under the door to his manor, then you guys can all come on out, and we'll take it from there."  It seemed as good a plan as any, so the other heroes all entered the lamp and Alewyth put on the necklace that allowed her to scry through the tiger's eye gem Wakuren wore on his forehead - effectively giving her a Wakuren's-eye view outside Hesperna's lamp.  That way, she'd know once he'd made it inside the manor house and when it was safe for them to exit the lamp.The trek to Gambrosini's island went as expected; upon approaching it closer, Wakuren saw it was about a dozen acres in size, with the manor house in the center of the island, surrounded by trees in all directions.  There was a path from the boathouse on the shore to the front door of the manor, and as the half-orc got close to the building - a single-story affair made of stone, he noticed - he saw the unmistakable forms of four gargoyle carvings leaning over the four front eaves on either side of the main door.  Wakuren was fairly certain these were not just simple statuary; they'd explain the "flying creatures" often seen around twilight: gargoyle guardians ensuring the manor was safe at the beginning of each evening.  Not wanting to alert them to his presence (even while fully invisible), he cast his gaseous form spell (preceded by a protection from evil spell) as quietly as he could, drifting to the front door without making a sound.  None of the four gargoyles seemed to have been alerted to his presence.  As silent as a cloud, his mistlike form slid beneath the front door and he drifted into a large, unlit foyer with well-polished marble floors."He's heading inside," Alewyth alerted the others, who had spent the time while Wakuren walked over the waters of the lake to cast some "let's get ready for imminent combat" spells.  Xandro cast two heroism spells, one upon himself and one upon Alewyth; the dwarf priestess returned the favor by imbuing the rogue/bard with a protection from evil spell after having cast a magic circle against evil spell upon herself.  Thurloe cast a protection from evil spell on himself - he didn't want to get dominated by some vampire lord - and then cast a light spell on a piton he fished from his pack, not expecting vampires kept any lights burning inside their island abodes (and totally forgetting about the everburning torch he had bundled up in that same pack, wrapped in rags).  The spellsword cast a shield spell on himself with his wand, then passed it over to Zander to do likewise.  The elf sorcerer also opted to cast a mislead spell on himself, allowing his illusory double (and that of his pseudodragon familiar Petey, riding on a shoulder) to occupy the same space his now-invisible self occupied; he'd split them up once they were out of the lamp.Seeing nothing of importance in the main hall, Wakuren slipped beneath another door in the back of the room and found himself in a short corridor.  But Alewyth had announced to everyone that they were now inside the building and the others, eager for some action, started disembarking from Hesperna's lamp, starting with Alewyth herself.  She exited the lamp with her butterfly brooch activated, fluttering just above the floor so she didn't set off any pressure-plate traps.  The others didn't think about such things and just started popping into place all around Wakuren's misty form, so he went ahead and deactivated his gaseous form spell, although since his air walk spell was still active he too opted not to touch the floor in case there were any traps in the floor that would go off if enough weight were placed on them."Here, take this," said Wakuren, slipping his ring of invisibility from his finger and passing it over to Xandro.  The rogue thanked the half-orc and slid on the ring, activating it and passing into invisibility.  The hallway ended in a closed door at either end; Wakuren went west while Xandro headed east.Wakuren tried the door before him and found it unlocked.  He wasn't prepared for the scene on the other side of the door, however, for while the two halls were both immaculate, the hallway beyond the door was covered in dust and thick with cobwebs.  There were two open doorways just ahead, directly opposite each other; Wakuren advanced that far down the hallway - which led into a larger room just ahead - and saw what looked to be a kitchen to the north and a laundry room to the south, each covered in thick webbing.  That wasn't all, either, for he saw movement up along the ceiling and spotted several spidery forms overhead, a quartet of spiders as big as he was in the laundry area and four slightly smaller ones in the obviously unused kitchen.  There were several mummified corpses along the floor in each room, and when he pinpointed the skittering sounds of rats coming from the dining room just ahead, he figured out what the spiders had been feasting upon.  But all of this - unused kitchen, swarms of summonable rats at hand - only reinforced the idea that they were dealing with a vampire in Wakuren's mind.Wakuren called out quietly to the others what he had seen, and as Robin pulled out her lute and started playing the song of inspirational courage - that was her main role in the party, after all, and so far it seemed like nobody was home, anyway - at almost the same time one of the larger spiders from the laundry room spotted Wakuren and decided he'd make a nice meal.  Scurrying out of the room and leaping behind the unwary half-orc, it tried biting him with its wicked mandibles but was stopped by the cleric's heavy armor.Zander, however, had seen the spider and decided he'd do something about all of them and the rat swarms as well.  He cast a fireball spell down the hallway, exploding it in the space between the open doorways so the expanding flames could encompass the hungry arachnids and also extend partway into the dining room.  He considered the tactic a success, as it slew seven of the eight spiders and about half of the rats, and if Wakuren and Thurloe both happened to be in the area of the fiery explosion, well, they were adventurers, they could handle it.  Plus, the elf figured, they'd both been buoyed up with a heroes' feast that morning, the same as the rest of them, so a little friendly fireball damage was a small price to pay.Wakuren, however, seeing no other exits from the dining room, backed down the hallway the way he'd come and closed the door once again - he'd leave the remaining spider and the rats that survived the blast to fight it out among themselves, because there was nothing of interest for him in there.Xandro, in the meantime, had gone to the door at the other end of the hallway and noted another door off to the side.  Opting to try that one first, he had an invisible hand on the doorknob when he felt it twist - someone was opening it from the other side!  Leaping to the side and drawing Deathwhisper, he saw an extremely tall male, with grayish skin and wearing a butler's uniform, carrying a candelabra of a dozen or so candles, exit what was apparently his bedroom.  He had a concerned look on his face; apparently he'd heard intruders in the manor house and sure enough, there were Zander and Petey halfway down the hallway, with Wakuren further down.  (Alewyth and Robin, by this time, had exited back through the door to the south and were exploring some of the other doors leading off from the main hallway; Robin had stopped playing her lute once the spiders and rats had been taken care of.)With a roar of rage, the goliath butler, Lurke, grabbed up a dagger from behind his back and approached the elf sorcerer.  But in a flash, Xandro was upon him, stabbing him from behind with his magic rapier.  Lurke spun around and tried retaliating with his dagger at the now-visible Xandro, but the human easily dodged the attack.  Zander, figuring Xandro had this battle handled, cast a bear's endurance spell upon himself and his pseudodragon; they were further down the hallway than the illusions of themselves Lurke had seen but the elf figured buoying himself up further was never a bad idea.Once the spell was cast, however, Petey went flying from his master's shoulder and attacked Lurke, stabbing at the goliath in the back of the neck.  Surprisingly, the hulking giant folded like a house of cards, falling into a dream-addled sleep from the little pseudodragon's venom.  "Give me a hand with him," hissed Xandro, as he tried dragging the goliath back into his own bedroom.  "If we leave him in his bed, he may think everything he saw out here was a dream."  Zander picked up the goliath by the ankles, and he and Xandro wrestled him back into bed; Petey gave him a second dose of sleep venom to ensure he'd be out for some time.That done, Xandro reactivated the ring of invisibility and faded from view.  He went back to the door he had originally been going to open and silently did so.  Inside was a massive bedroom, with a four-poster bed with hanging canopies overhead.  A middle-aged drow maid, her back turned to Xandro, was busily dusting the wooden furniture; seeing there was nobody else inside, he silently closed the door again and turned back to the others.Alewyth had been opening doors, discovering a linen closet and a cloakroom just off the main foyer.  The cloakroom was somewhat interesting, in that most of the cloaks were cut for young women, and there seemed to be many more of them than would be needed by his four new hires.  Furthermore, the ones the furthest back seemed to be somewhat dusty, as if they hadn't been used in many months, possibly years.  This was a good indicator, the dwarven priestess thought, that the young ladies Lord Gambrosini hired didn't last very long in his employ - they were probably slain to slake his unholy thirst for blood.To the east of the main door, a side hallway led to a reading nook - the heavy curtains pulled tight around the window, allowing in no light - and beyond that, a small library, where two more middle-aged drow maids were hard at work scrubbing and polishing in the dark.  They turned, startled, when Thurloe approached with his glowing piton - how had this intruder gotten into the Lord's manor?  Thurloe tried unsuccessfully shushing them with hand gestures, until Alewyth approached with her tongues spell active.  "Please forgive our intrusion," she said, "but we were sent to check on the status of Baella.  Where might she be found?""Baella?" answered one of the maids.  "She's--she's downstairs, with the Lord and the other girls."Alewyth thanked them and when Thurloe tried making threatening gestures - hoping to get across the unspoken message, "You'd better not tell anyone you saw us here" - Alewyth grabbed him by the collar and dragged him away.  "Leave them be," she said.  "They're obviously just the hired help, and of no threat to us.  Why do you always have to be this way?""We don't know anything about them," the spellsword argued back.  "I'd feel better if Wakuren took a peek at their auras."Zander cast a haste spell on those in his immediate vicinity - Robin, Wakuren, Thurloe, and himself and his familiar - and suggested everybody head downstairs.  There was a spiral staircase to the west of the main door to the manor, the obvious way down, and it turned out to be a lot longer of a trip than the elf had imagined; he lost exact count, but figured it must have made at least 10 circuits around its central axis, if not a full dozen.  Thurloe cast a fire shield spell on himself on the way down, and followed it with a bear's endurance spell; he was never one to lose an opportunity to further protect himself via magical means if the opportunity arose.  Wakuren, for his part, cast a mass cure light wounds spell, healing up some of the damage he and Thurloe had taken from Zander's fireball spell earlier.Finally arriving at the bottom, Wakuren tried to open the door and found it to be locked.  He called behind him for the others to send Xandro down; the rogue was the only one with the expertise to pick locks such as this one.  In the meantime, he tried to see if he could detect the presence of any evil auras on the other side of the door, and came up empty.Xandro opened the lock with practiced ease and stepped inside.  The room beyond was enormous, with a ceiling height of 35 feet, and eight wooden doors scattered on all sides, two to a wall.  Zander entered next and cast a detect magic spell, but found nothing but items on Xandro's person that he already knew were magical.  But when Wakuren entered the room, he announced quietly that he was sensing evil on the other side of the set of double doors leading east.  Then, in a surprise move for the peaceful half-orc, he kicked the doors open with his booted foot and stepped into the room beyond.  This room was even larger than the one Wakuren had just exited, with hardwood floors polished to a glossy shine.  There was no light in the room, but it wasn't necessary, for the people in it were all drow: four young women along the southern wall, the three other girls singing accompaniment to Baella's flute, while across from them sat a tall, lanky drow whose regal bearing indicated this was Lord Djuduran Gambrosini himself.  An elaborate harp stood beside him, and there were two ugly statues along the near corners, wingless gargoyles on separate plinths, and to Wakuren's paladin-trained senses, the unmistakable miasma of evil emanated from them as well as from Lord Gambrosini.  At the far end of the room hung a wide curtain with three embroidered crowns sewn with gold thread."What is the meaning of this, orc?" demanded Lord Gambrosini, and Wakuren caught the fact that the drow's vision could pierce directly through his disguise self spell effect, negating his illusory appearance as a drow nobleman himself.  Behind him, Alewyth entered the room, her holy symbol of Aerik raised high before her.  She walked over by the drow women, and they stopped their singing and flute-playing as the dwarf's magic circle against evil encompassed them, shielding their minds from enchantment magic.  As they shook their heads - rather like suddenly waking from a bad dream - Alewyth asked them, "Were you forced to come here?"  They stumbled over their answers, for they dimly remembered applying for the job working for Lord Gambrosini, but the details were kind of fuzzy in their memories.  As they answered, Alewyth sent a bolt of positive energy through her holy symbol, hoping to force the undead vampire before to recoil in horror.  But the drow noble held an expression of confusion on his face, as if wondering just who these intruders were and why was the dwarf woman trying to turn him as if he were undead?"Hide inside the darkness!" called out Wakuren as he cast an obscuring mist spell in the back corner of the room.  "We're here to rescue you from the clutches of this fiend!"  Totally confused about their current situations, the four young drow women complied.  Wakuren stepped in with them and placed Hesperna's lamp on the ground before him.  He beckoned the girls to step forward, touch the lamp, and say the command word - which he provided - to go to somewhere safe, while they dealt with Lord Gambrosini.  They did as asked, each of them being shunted inside the extradimensional space of the lamp.Lord Gambrosini couldn't see inside the obscuring mist, but he could hear what Wakuren was saying to his new hires, and it infuriated him greatly.  Casting forth a lesser geas into the mist, he called out, "Crawl on your hands and knees for forgiveness, orc beast!"  Wakuren, thinking it best to let the vampire think he'd succeeded, came crawling towards Lord Gambrosini on his hands and knees, although he'd managed to shrug off the intended effects.But then Zander, still invisible, entered the room.  (Shortly thereafter, when he remembered to make them do so, so did the illusory images of the elf and his familiar.  The real Petey was busy opening doors in the room at the bottom of the winding stairs, discovering four young ladies' bedrooms and a shared bathroom, in turn.)  The elf sorcerer cast a prismatic spray spell, catching Lord Gambrosini and one of the "wingless gargoyle statues," which proved to be a kapoacinth moving in to attack Alewyth.  The spell had no effect at all on the drow, but the kapoacinth was instantly slain, his body burned beyond recognition with a powerful blast of electricity.Xandro wasn't quite sure he wished to engage a foe powerful enough to make Wakuren crawl around on his hands and knees, so he put off the immediate need to fight Lord Gambrosini directly by tossing his figurine of wondrous power into the room by the drow's feet.  The dire tiger took form immediately and needed no further coaxing; it bit at the nobleman, who was swift enough to dodge out of his way.Thurloe entered the entertainment room next and slew the other kapoacinth - who had hopped off of his plinth - with a single stroke of Spellslicer.  The attack channeled the two spells he'd loaded into it earlier, a vampiric touch spell followed immediately by a bestow curse spell, but the creature was already dead before the curse could even be activated.Wakuren suddenly leaped to his feet and cast a blindness/deafness spell at Lord Gambrosini, hoping to deprive him of his sight.  The drow managed to repel the intended effects and keep his vision intact, but he'd had quite enough of these intruders!  Stepping back from the snarling dire tiger, he released his true form.  Immediately, he began growing in size, doubling, tripling, expanding even further until he stood a good 32 feet tall.  But more had changed than his size: his arms merged into his side as three long necks grew from his torso, each ending in a draconic head with back-sweeping horns.  Giant, triangular wings grew from his back, and two separate tails provided balance as he leaned forward, looking down upon his foes, no longer wearing the guise of a drow noble but now in his fully regal appearance, as the Thrice-Crowned King, a form of gorynych.Zander swore an elven oath and cast a wall of force from the eastern wall to over where the Thrice-Crowned King's body now stood.  At the same time, Thurloe cast a fog cloud spell, and realizing the effects wouldn't reach all the way to the ceiling, he cast it up at the ceiling, such that the bottom 10 feet of the slice of room in which stood the Thrice-Crowned King was visible, and the three draconic heads were all temporarily sightless.  Xandro took the opportunity to race into the room and stab at the gorynych with Deathwhisper, not overly concerned that the attack rendered him back among the fully visible.  Beside him, the dire tiger bit and raked at the reptilian feet of the multiheaded dragon.Alewyth tried casting a harm spell at the gorynych but failed to get past the dragon's inherent resistance to spells.  From the previous room, where Petey was still industriously exploring behind doors, the strains of Robin's song of inspirational courage began anew, as the bard opted to remain around the corner, to the side of the open doorway.The Thrice-Crowned King's tails suddenly swung backwards, stabilizing as he bent forward enough to bring all three heads dipping below the bottom surface of the fog cloud.  All three mouths opened at the same time and released a burst of power, a dangerous mix of both electricity and pure force.  It hit the floor directly below the gorynych and flew out in all directions, sending Xandro, the dire tiger, Thurloe, Alewyth, and Wakuren flying back in all directions (and Zander as well, although as the elf was still under the effects of a greater invisibility spell this wasn't immediately obvious).  Alewyth skidded along the invisible wall of force until she was pushed in the far corner behind the Thrice-Crowned King.But the elf righted himself quickly, pulling out a scroll from a case as he did so.  He read the words to the prismatic wall spell scroll he'd purchased several cities back, creating a multilayered wall perpendicular from the end of the wall of force north to the wall by the harp.  At Zander's current level of expertise, he was only able to make it 32 feet tall, so he opted to leave a 3-foot gap at the top, just below the 35-foot-tall ceiling.  Since the ceiling was still obscured by the fog cloud spell, he figured that was the safest bet.Thurloe, being quickly made aware of the gap, flew up to the ceiling and cast a ray of exhaustion spell at the gorynych; he couldn't see him very well, but at his size, penned in as he was by two magic walls, he was fairly difficult to miss.  Sure enough, the spell hit true, making it past the Thrice-Crowned King's spell resistance, and weakening the three-headed dragon to some extent.Xandro didn't have any way up to the top of the prismatic wall, nor did he have any attack spells to hurl at the gorynych, so he crossed the room and pushed his way past the hanging curtains, finding himself in a massive bedroom with a poster bed in the corner of the room, nearly identical to the one upstairs but this one large enough to easily sleep four or five people all at once.  There was also enough room on the carpeted floor for the Thrice-Crowned King to sleep in his true form if he so desired.  There was another set of hanging curtains along the middle of the south wall, so Xandro went to go check them out next, his dire tiger having padded up quietly to his side in the meantime.  Alewyth followed the pair, figuring "Lord Gambrosini" had been sufficiently caged.  Wakuren stayed by Zander just outside the prismatic wall, ready to aid if the elf needed any sudden healing.  In the meantime, the half-orc cast a shield of faith spell upon himself.The Thrice-Crowned King knew enough about magic to know it would be potentially lethal to try to pass through the prismatic wall.  As a gorynych, though, he could cast greater dispel magic thrice a day, once from each head.  Not knowing the spell was ineffective against a prismatic wall (at least until all but the last layer had been dealt with), he cast the first of his spells of that type, disappointed to see (when he leaned down below the fog cloud) that the multilayered wall was still in place.But Zander knew something else about the prismatic wall spell that the Thrice-Crowned King did not: as the spell's caster, he could pass through it without harm.  So he put his hand through the seven layers of the multicolored wall and cast a prismatic spray spell at the gorynych, only to have to bounce off his inherent spell resistance.Thurloe had, by this time, gotten bored, and went through the gorynych's bedroom to follow Xandro, Alewyth, and the dire tiger.  There was a wine cellar just beyond - impressive, but not what he was looking for - so he opened another set of hanging curtains, this pair to the west, and saw an unusual room just beyond.  It was the same size as the entertainment hall, but included a rounded projection to the south which held an open pool of water in the floor, from which pool popped a pair of draconic heads - water drakes!  There was also a massive air elemental in the back corner of the room, and the western wall held what could only be the vault door to the Thrice-Crowned King's treasury.  That was what the spellsword had been looking for!  He quickly cast a resistance to electricity spell on himself, given the water drakes' scales were blue and he recalled blue dragons shooting lines of electricity from their mouths.But then Alewyth cast a wall of stone spell that completely sealed off the front part of the room containing the open portal to the lake bottom.  Now, not only could the water drakes not enter the facility, but the air elemental, whose job it was to ensure the lake waters didn't rise into the dwelling when either the double doors to the entertainment hall or the door to the spiral staircase were opened, now had no real reason for being there.Xandro took a chance and walked invisibly past the air elemental, eager to check out the vault door and thinking it very likely he wouldn't be noticed.   Fortunately, he wasn't, and he set about trying to open the locked vault doors without a key, using his masterwork lockpicks and his knowledge about how such mechanisms were designed.By that point, the Thrice-Crowned King had tried all three of his greater dispel magic spells to no effect.  In irritation, he flapped his massive wings, inadvertently discovering the gap at the top of the prismatic wall when the fog cloud was blown out of the sealed-in corner Gambrosini now found himself stuck in.  Zander hadn't had much better luck, either; the one time he'd gotten a prismatic spray spell past the gorynych's spell resistance, the random effect was a blast of electricity - to which the dragon was immune.Thurloe started combat with the huge air elemental by casting an enervation spell on it.  But then Alewyth raised her holy symbol of Aerik high once again, channeling another blast of positive energy.  As a priestess of Aerik, God of Stone and Earth, she was able to turn air elementals as easily as she could undead creatures, and this time the attempt worked; the air elemental cowered in the corner, leaving everyone else in the room alone.  Xandro announced his sudden success at unlocking the vault door, but it was far too heavy for him to pull open by himself, having been made for the Thrice-Crowned King to open using his much greater strength.Zander stuck his hand inside the multihued wall again and cast another prismatic spray spell, this time getting pas the gorynych's spell resistance and striking him with a random green ray, which poisoned the reptile to some small effect.  Another such spell bounced right off the dragon's resistance to spells, however - the elf wasn't having a whole lot of luck on that front!Xandro called for Thurloe to come help him tug open the vault door.  Straining every muscle in his body (and activating his torc of the titans for an extra boost of strength), Thurloe helped tug it open a bit, and once they had gotten it started momentum helped to open it all the way.  But that's when they spotted the treasure guardian: a gargantuan crab, its hardened carapace a deep reddish-orange with black along the edges.  Xandro stabbed the crab with Deathwhisper, returning back to visibility as he did so.  The dire tiger ran across the room and attacked the crab as well, but its hardened shell helped it avoid the worst of the damage from scratching claws and biting teeth.  Alewyth, in the meantime, tried casting a dismissal spell at the air elemental - she knew it would only cower there in place for so long - but it shrugged off the intended effects, remaining in place on the Material Plane.The crab caught the dire tiger up in its claws, while Xandro and Thurloe hacked at it with their swords.  Xandro was finally able to pierce the crab's carapace with Deathwhisper, stabbing his blade deep into its innards, and the mighty crustacean shivered and collapsed to the floor of the vault, its legs giving out as it died.Zander was by then all out of prismatic spray spells, and the Thrice-Crowned King was all out of ideas about how to exit the trap in which he'd been caught.  So, with a mental command, he started shrinking once again, his three-headed draconic form returning to his drow nobleman guise.  "Very well," he said to his captors, "perhaps we should discuss terms."  Even in this form, however, his wounds were healing up at a rapid rate; soon he'd be back at full power, despite all the punishment he'd taken in his two forms.Unable to further effect the air elemental and not wanting to get to close to it and accidentally free it from its enforced cowering, Alewyth had backtracked to see how the other two were doing against Lord Gambrosini.  She was surprised to see him in his drow form, talking with Wakuren and Zander (who had done away with his illusory form and his greater invisibility, so they could talk easier).  "It seems a fair price to pay!" Gambrosini was arguing.  "They get a year of special attention from me, living in luxury, and at the end of that time they become my meal.  Considering all that I have done for the city of Sko'torath, I'd say a mere four young women a year was quite a bargain!""That's not quite such a good deal if you're one of the four young tributes!" argued Alewyth.  Lord Gambrosini waved her away as if she were nothing more than an irritating fly; incensed, she cast a summoning spell that brought forth an elder earth elemental - right there in the "cage" of two magical walls with him.  It brought down a boulder-sized fist to crush him, but he nimbly dodged out of the way.  Then Wakuren air walked to the top of the prismatic wall and cast a control winds spell, causing gusts to blow from the east side to the west, aimed straight at the wall.  He'd hoped to send Gambrosini flying through all seven layers of the prismatic wall, but the stubborn dragon-in-drow-form stood his ground.Zander finally gave up with prismatic spray spells - not like he had any choice - and cast a cone of cold spell through his prismatic wall spell.  Frost formed on both Lord Gambrosini and the earth titan, and the slipperiness coating him caused the gorynych to lose his footing.  The control winds spell caught him up and pitched him through the multicolored wall, where he was instantly burned by flames, eaten by acid, zapped by electricity, poisoned, petrified into solid stone, and thrown onto a random plane of existence.  Just that quickly, Lord Djuduran Gambrosini was no more.Everyone headed over to Thurloe and Xandro to check out the vault's contents.  Sure enough, if the three stuffed and mounted dragon heads (an adult red, a mature adult green, and a young adult blue) were any indication, Lord Gambrosini had been keeping Sko'torath safe from dragons - mainly, by slaying them so he could add the contents of their hoards to his own.  Xandro was practically salivating at the sight of the chest and barrels, all left open and their contents spilling out so they could be appreciated at a glance: gold, silver, and platinum coins; diamonds, pearls, emeralds, topaz, and rubies; and intricate bracelets, necklaces, tiaras, and crowns dripping with jewels.  At a rough estimate, he guessed there was treasure totaling close to 150,000 pieces of gold all here in Lord Gambrosini's vault.  Alewyth supervised loading all of the goods into her extradimensional chest, until she was satisfied they'd gotten everything.When they finished, they found the air elemental was gone - the time had expired on its cowering, as had its requirement to keep the lake waters at bay; it had apparently returned on its own to its home plane, given the Thrice-Crowned King, who had forced it into service, was no more.  The heroes made their way back to the young ladies' bedrooms, where they likewise packed up all of their belongings, and then went up the stairs and informed the maids that Lord Gambrosini had been a hungry dragon in disguise and that they no longer had an employer.  The heroes wished them well, and warned them of the rats and spiders living in the sealed-off section of the manor and the gargoyles standing watch on the rooftops overhead if they chose to stay.  And then, with the other heroes safely inside Hesperna's lamp with the four frightened drow women, Wakuren opened the front door, stepped outside, summoned his air element warhorse Nimbus, and flew off before the gargoyles could react.He was imagining the look on Caedolyienne's face when he returned Baella to her the whole way back across Lake Pros'bock. - - -This adventure went pretty long, close to five hours.  I was amused at how well everything fit into place as far as Lord Gambrosini being a vampire; that hadn't been intentional on my part.  (Lurke and the maids ate using a magic spoon that created gruel in any flavor they could imagine; it was easier for Lord Gambrosini that way, as he didn't generally eat but once a year.  And that allowed him to close off sections of the upper floor of the manor, which was really only there for show, as he preferred staying downstairs with his enchanted playthings.)The Thrice-Crowned King gorynych variant, which I found on Paizo's website, was very obviously patterned after Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster, one of Godzilla's main antagonists, so I used a Ghidorah figure when Lord Gambrosini revealed his true appearance.At the end of this adventure, everyone advanced their PC to 17th level.  We now have only 20 more adventures left in this campaign.  - - -T-shirt worn: A solid blue shirt, the represent not only the waters of the lake, but also the feelings of the sad drow mother at the possibility of never getting to see her daughter again.</blockquote>

Verification